Editing Town (section)

== Meaning ==
In some cases, ''town'' is an alternative name for "city" or "village" (especially a small city or large village; and occasionally even [[hamlet (place)|hamlets]]). Sometimes, the word ''town'' is short for ''[[township]]''. In general, today towns can be differentiated from townships, villages, or hamlets on the basis of their economic character, in that most of a town's population will tend to derive their living from manufacturing industry, commerce, and public services rather than [[primary sector]] industries such as agriculture or related activities.

A place's population size is not a reliable determinant of urban character. In many areas of the world, e.g. in India at least until recent times, a large village might contain several times as many people as a small town. In the United Kingdom, there are historical cities [[List of urban areas in England by population|that are far smaller]] than the larger towns.
[[File:Moisakula - panoramio (1).jpg|thumb|[[Mõisaküla]] is a small town in the southern part of [[Estonia]], just next to the border of [[Latvia]]. The town's current population is less than 1,000 inhabitants.]]

The modern phenomenon of extensive [[suburb]]an growth, satellite urban development, and migration of city dwellers to villages has further complicated the definition of towns, creating communities urban in their economic and cultural characteristics but lacking other characteristics of urban localities.

Some forms of non-rural settlement, such as temporary mining locations, may be clearly non-rural, but have at best a questionable claim to be called a town.

Towns often exist as distinct governmental units, with legally defined borders and some or all of the appurtenances of local government (e.g. a police force). In the United States these are referred to as "incorporated towns". In other cases the town lacks its own governance and is said to be "unincorporated". The existence of an unincorporated town may be legally set out by other means, e.g. zoning districts. In the case of some [[planned community|planned communities]], the town exists legally in the form of covenants on the properties within the town. The [[United States census]] identifies many [[census-designated place]]s (CDPs) by the names of unincorporated towns which lie within them; however, those CDPs typically include rural and suburban areas and even surrounding villages and other towns.

[[File:View of Mariehamn, 2022.jpg|thumb|Aerial view of [[Mariehamn]], the town in [[Åland]] with over 10,000 inhabitants]]
The distinction between a town and a city similarly depends on the approach: a city may strictly be an administrative entity which has been granted that designation by law, but in informal usage, the term is also used to denote an urban locality of a particular size or importance: whereas a [[Middle Ages|medieval]] city may have possessed as few as 10,000 inhabitants, today some{{who|date=November 2014}} consider an urban place of fewer than 100,000 as a town, even though there are many officially designated cities that are much smaller than that.

[[Member states of the United Nations|193 countries]] have been involved in a common effort to agree on a common statistical definition of the three categories: cities, towns and rural areas.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What makes a city a city? |url=https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/fr/web/products-eurostat-news/-/wdn-20210402-1?redirect=%2Feurostat%2Ffr%2F}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=September 2023}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Applying the Degree of Urbanisation — A methodological manual to define cities, towns and rural areas for international comparisons — 2021 edition |url=https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/ks-02-20-499}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=September 2023}}

=== Age of towns scheme ===
Australian geographer [[Thomas Griffith Taylor]] proposed a classification of towns based on their age and pattern of [[land use]]. He identified five types of towns:<ref>Goodall, B. (1987) The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography. London: Penguin.</ref>

* ''Infantile towns'', with no clear [[zoning]]
* ''Juvenile towns'', which have developed an area of [[Retailing|shops]]
* ''Adolescent towns'', where factories have started to appear
* ''Early mature towns'', with a separate area of [[Social class|high-class]] housing
* ''Mature towns'', with defined industrial, commercial and various types of residential area

[[File:Quincy Street Historic District Hancock 100 block N 2009.jpg|thumb|The city of [[Hancock, Michigan]] along Quincy Street]]